NEW HAWAIIAN PETROGLYPHS DISCOVERED BY TEXAS TOURISTS:

Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

In an August 10, 2016, story on LiveScience, contributing writer Stephanie Pappas reported on the discovery of petroglyphs on the beach at Oahu's Waianae Coast on the western side of the island.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

A layer of horizontal sandstone rock on the beach is normally covered by sands which can be shifted and moved by wave action. Two tourists from Texas were there at just the right time to see exposed engraving in the rock layer. At the time of Pappas' writing seventeen carvings have been found along the shoreline. Most of the images are human figures with one measuring 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) tell.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

Finding petroglyphs right on the shoreline is rare, but some locals report that they have seen them before. They had not, however, been previously reported or recorded.

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

"The plan for the preservation of the petroglyphs is still in its infancy, a Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman told Live Science. The agency's State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) will work with the Army  to develop a plan. The petroglyphs are extremely fragile, and even brushing sand away from them can damage them, archaeologists said. They are an important part of Hawaii’s culture and while sands have covered them again, in time they will reappear and we want to make sure people know that they are fragile and culturally sensitive and should only be viewed; not touched," Alan Downer, SHPD administrator, said in a statement." (Pappas/LiveScience)

Newly discovered petroglyphs on

the Waianae Coast, Oahu, Hawaii.

Photograph from LiveScience.

If the Hawaiian SHPD stated that "even brushing sand away from them can damage them", one has to ask what the tide washing sand back and forth over them daily is doing, or do they believe that the water provides a cushion protecting them from sand erosion?

In any case the Waianae Coast petroglyphs provide an interesting and valuable new addition to knowledge of Hawaiian rock art.

REFERENCES:

http://livescience.com

BIRDS IN ROCK ART, PUEO – THE HAWAIIAN OWL:

Puako owl, Hawaii, Ellen Belef, Sept. 2012.

At the Puako petroglyph site on the island of Hawaii, this figure on the right is called the Puako Owl. If this identification is correct that means that it is a representation of the Pueo (Asio flammeus sandwichensis), a subspecies of the Short-eared owl that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The Pueo also represents an ancestor spirit (na’aumakua) in Hawaiian culture.

Figure on right is called the Puako owl, Joe Belef, 2012.

Inhabiting forests and grasslands throughout the islands, their numbers are now in decline, especially on the island of Oahu, and they are now listed as an endangered species.The Pueo was first named Strix sandwichensis in 1825, by Andrew Bloxam, a naturalist aboard the british ship HMS Bonde. It is now classified as a subspecies of the Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus. The Pueo nests on the ground which leaves their eggs and young vulnerable to predators such as the mongoose and cats, as well as by bulldozers (Wikipedia).

Hawaiian Pueo owl, Asio flammeus sandwichensis, Wikipedia. 

In mythology, as an amakua, the owl is specifically skilled in battle.

“The most famous legend, "The Battle of the Owls" underscores the aumakua's force. It relates the story of an Oahu man who robbed an owl's nest: After he slung the coveted bounty in his knapsack, the owl-parent shrieked with grief and complaint. The man felt sorry and quickly returned the eggs unharmed to the nest. Not only that, he took the owl as his god and built a temple in its honor. Naturally, the ruling chief thought this an act of rebellion against the prevalent gods, and ordered the man's execution. The weapon was poised, the man feared his last breath, and the owls gathered, darkening the skies with their wings. Any further action of the king's soldiers became impossible. The man walked free. Pueo-hulu-nui near Moanalua on Oahu is one of the alleged places where the awesome battle took place.”

“Much further back in time, it is said that Hina, the mother of the god Maui, gave birth to a second child, in the form of the pueo. Later, when the brave Maui was taken as prisoner by enemies and held for sacrifice, brother owl rescued him and led him to safety.”

“Another old story of rescue tells of a warrior who fought under King Kamehameha the First. Cornered by the enemy, he was about to plunge over a dangerous cliff. Right at that moment an owl flew up in his face, so that he was able to thrust out his spear into the earth, saving himself from the suicidal leap.” (http://www.coffeetimes.com/mar98.htm)

The image does also bear a marked resemblance to a figure wearing a traditional Hawaiian gourd headdress/mask or helmet. However, although one cannot completely discount identifications of rock art images made by the descendants of the original creators, but we can question the original meaning, or assign multiple references to such an image. So, until we know better, based upon its identification by Hawaiian peoples, this figure represents Pueo, the Hawaiian short-eared owl, and I like him that way.

REFERENCES:

http://www.coffeetimes.com/mar98.htm

Wikipedia

HAWAIIAN ROCK ART - KONANE GAME BOARDS:

Konane game board. Papamu, Big Island, Hawaii.

Photograph: Douglas Beauchamp, 2009.

On Dec. 1, 2010, I had posted a column about a rock art site on the Hawaiian island of Oahu that has a grouping of pits in its upper surface that are considered to be a game board, not a piko stone. This site, named Pohaku Ka Luahine, is found in Moanalua valley and consists of a large round boulder. It is densly pecked with lines and figures as well as the game board. On Dec. 23, 2012, I mentioned it again in the context of game boards in rock art. I could not really distinguish the grid of pits of the konane game board on the top of the boulder due to lighting conditions and the somewhat eroded nature of the boulder so I included a somewhat problematical field sketch from Ancient Sites of Oahu, Revised by Van James (2010: p.50). Konane is described as a checkers-like game played with black and white pebbles by Hawaiians and examples have reportedly been found with one hundred or more pits pecked into boulders. 

Konane game board. Papamu, Big Island, Hawaii.

Photograph: Douglas Beauchamp, 2009

After that column was posted I received a communication from Douglas Beauchamp of Eugene, Oregon, who enclosed three photos of boulders with probable konane game boards from Hawaii, the Big Island, that he had taken in 2009. These photos are much more effective at illustrating what a carved stone konane game board looks like.

Konane game board. Papamu, Big Island, Hawaii.

Photograph: Douglas Beauchamp, 2009

Douglas is also participating in a photographic exhibit that sounds absolutely fascinating. The exhibit ARCHAIC PETROGLYPHS IN OREGON COUNTRY is scheduled to be held at the Jacobs Gallery of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon, from January 25 to March 16, 2013. There is also an accompanying symposium on rock art scheduled. For details go to http://www.jacobsgallery.org/exhibits/next-exhibit/ . Douglas, thank you for the photos and the information.

REFERENCES:

Beauchamp, Douglas

James, Van

2010   Ancient Sites of Oahu, Revised, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.

GAME BOARDS, CONTINUED:

Tlacuachero game board. From Games People Play, Barbara Voorhies,

p. 48, Archaeology Magazine, May-June 2012.

An article in the May/June 2012 issue of Archaeology magazine illustrated another possible use for groups of small holes. In this article Barbara Voorhies (Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara) described discoveries at the site of Tlacuachero in the Mexican state of Chiapas which was inhabited between 5,050 to 4,230 years ago. The floors of some of the huts excavated had circular or oval patterns of holes in them that she identified as game boards. Voorhies source of inspiration for this identification came from the book Games Of The North American Indians, by Stewart Culin, originally published in 1907 as the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Voorhies explained that “Culin’s book pulled together ethnographic accounts showing that board games were played by societies across the area that is now Canada, the United States, and Mexico.”

Walapai game board, Fig. 279, p. 208, From: Culin, Stewart,

Games of the North American Indians, Vol. 1, Twenty-fourth

Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,

1902-1903, Smithsonian Institution.

White Mountain Apache game board, Fig. 86, p.88, 

From: Culin, Stewart, Games of the North American

Indians, Vol. 1, Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the

Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903,

Smithsonian Institution.

One category of games in the system of classification developed by Culin was “race games”, such as our modern children’s game of Candyland where the winner is the first to reach the final goal. “In race games, the winner is the first player to move his or her pieces to a goal – Candyland and Snakes and Ladders are modern versions of race games. The “boards” themselves were usually improvised arrangements of small stones. In places where stones were not easily available, people made their game boards by digging small holes. The Hualapai people of Arizona used a type of game board closely resembling the oval features at Tlacuachero.” (Voorhies 2012: 50)

Pecked holes in lava flow, Puako, Hawaii, Photograph: Ellen Belef, Sept. 2012.

Pecked holes in rock, PuuLoa, Hawaii, Photograph: Joe Belef, 2007.

I shall not go into details about how these games were played referring any interested parties to go to the original publication. Suffice it to say, however, the knowledge of the existence of these features, and the reasons for them, should suggest to us that there are other possible identifications that may be considered for circular, or oval, patterns of holes. These patterns of holes can be found in many locations among the rock art. I have illustrated two examples from among the photographs of Hawaiian rock art given me by Joe and Ellen Belef, but I have seen such patterns in many places in the American west. As I stated elsewhere these are often misidentified as piko stones no matter where they are found (including the American west). All too often rock art enthusiasts parrot a line such as “holes in a stone are meant to put a newborn’s umbilical cord in,” but even in Hawaii where piko stones really exist, not all patterns of holes in a rock may be correctly identified as piko stones.

So, in the future, while pondering the true nature of a pattern of holes in a rock surface I submit that we must also keep in mind the possibility that patterns of holes may have other purposes such as counting or for use as game boards. Remember humanity’s predilection for play.

Thank you again to Ellen and Joe Belef for sharing their Hawaiian rock art photographs with us all.

REFERENCES:

Culin, Stewart

1907    Games Of The North American Indians, Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1902-1903, Smithsonian Institution.

Voorhies, Barbara

2012    GAMES PEOPLE PLAY, Archaeology Magazine, May/June 2012, pages 48 – 51.

HAWAIIAN ROCK ART IN UTAH:

Sea turtle petroglyph, Iosepa, UT.

Photograph by Benjamin Pykles.

In the last few months I have posted comments of a number of rock art sites I visited on a trip to Hawaii. What I had never expected was the fact that I could have visited Hawaiian rock art considerably closer to my home in Colorado.

Sea turtle petroglyph, Iosepa, UT.

Drawn by Peter Faris, after a

photograph by Benjamin Pykles.

In Skull Valley, Utah, west of Salt Lake City, Benjamin Pykles of the State University of New York at Potsdam has conducted archaeological investigation of the former site of the town of Iosepa. Pykles was assisted by Jonathan Reeves, an archaeology student at SUNY Potsdam. They recorded a remarkable group of petroglyph on the slope of Salt Mountain, overlooking the site of Iosepa and they presented their findings during a Society for American Archeology conference on April 1 in Sacramento, Calif. What makes these petroglyphs remarkable is the fact that they are mostly of tropical marine themes, and were done in a very Hawaiian-looking style.

Fish petroglyph, Iosepa, UT.

Drawn by Peter Faris, after a

photograph by Benjamin Pykles.

Subjects pictured in the 26 petroglyphs are reported to include fish, sea turtles, palm trees, a whale, and even what seems to represent a jellyfish, as well as more expected images such as a jackrabbit. The town of Iosepa had been founded in 1889 by Hawaiian converts to the Mormon Church who had moved to Utah with returning Mormon missionaries and settled in the Salt Lake City area.

Richard Poulsen, the President of the Iosepa Historical Society described the founding of the town in http://www.kued.org/productions/polynesian/history/.

“In the late 1800's the Mormon Church was expanding rapidly around the world due to the dedicated efforts of many diligent missionaries. Church membership grew especially fast in the Hawaiian Islands, where the native Polynesian people were quick to embrace the teachings of the gospel. Many of these Hawaiian converts felt a strong desire to come to Zion, where they could do temple work for themselves and for their ancestors. Soon arrangements were being made to undertake the journey, and these members began trickling into Utah as they accompanied missionaries returning to Utah from the Sandwich Islands. These pioneers settled into the Salt Lake Valley and its surrounding areas.


In 1889 a group of three Hawaiian converts and three return missionaries chose a section of land on Skull Valley's Rich Ranch for the purpose of forming a colony of Polynesian Saints. This colony was called Iosepa, the Hawaiian equivalent of Joseph, in honor of Joseph F. Smith, who had served a mission in the Hawaiian Islands.


On August 28, 1889, these Polynesian Saints moved to Iosepa, where lots were drawn for plots of land that had room for a home, garden, barn and corral. A sawmill was purchased and the Polynesians built homes, a chapel/assembly hall, a school, and a store in their community.”


The town developed steadily, and, with irrigation, became a thriving oasis in the Utah desert. The population grew to 228 souls and it was considered to be one of the great success stories in the colonization efforts of the church. Plantings thrived and included 300 walnut trees, 300 fruit trees, over 100 ornamental trees, grass, grape vines berries and flowers, especially noted were its yellow roses (Poulsen).

Poulsen continued “In 1915, Joseph F. Smith, then president of the Mormon Church, announced plans to build a temple at Laie, on the North Shore of Oahu. Some of the Hawaiians decided to return to the Islands, where they would now have more opportunities to perform sacred ordinances than they did in Utah, since the temple in Salt Lake City was 75 miles away. Church officials did not advise the colonists as a group to return, but did offer financial assistance to those who needed it. All of this had a snowballing effect, with more and more families deciding to return to Hawaii. Soon, even those who wished to remain in Iosepa were uncertain of the town's future. By January 1917, the town was virtually abandoned.”

Although these have to be considered historic (not prehistoric) images there is apparently no record of their purpose or any possible meaning. They may have been an appeal to remembered ancestral spirits to watch over the settlement, or perhaps just a vestige of homesickness on the part of one of the colonists. In any case, the petroglyphs of Iosepa are a record of a fascinating historical episode.

Reference:
http://www.kued.org/productions/polynesian/history/